Monday, March 11, 2013

Last week, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi revealed that he is the man behind Armenia’s song entry into the Eurovision song contest.

Dorians frontman Gor Sujyan's "Lonely Planet" was selected at a Saturday, March 2 national vote to be performed at Eurovision in Malmö, Sweden. The identity of the song's composers — Iommi (music) and Vardan Zadoyan (lyrics) — had been kept secret for a while.

Now, Iommi tells the Birmingham Mail, “I’ve plenty more where that one came from.”

The guitarist has a treasure trove of tracks he has written over the years, but which he has no intention of recording himself, either with Sabbath or on a solo album.

He said he was gobsmacked when the Armenians chose "Lonely Planet" – a song he wrote more than five years ago – as their Eurovision contender but now has high hopes for the track.

“I was as shocked as anybody when they came knocking,” he said. “They got in touch with me because of the charity work we’ve been doing out there, building a new music school to replace one wrecked by an earthquake.”

“They asked if I’d got any spare songs,” Tony continued. “Well, I write loads of songs and they just get put away. They lie on a shelf because either they’re not suitable for Sabbath or for another project, and never see the light of day. I searched out 'Lonely Planet' – it’s a bit of a power ballad – and sent it off.”

“I was surprised when it made the shortlist and gobsmacked when the people of Armenia voted for it. With a little luck, who knows, it might win.”